alt. mondays 025
In his 1967 book, “Ghost in the Machine”, Hungarian-British essayist, Arthur Koestler, tries to explain the reason for human violence by introducing the notion of ‘holon’, a concept that implies everything in nature is both a whole and a part. This was the 60s, a post-war era when independence was sweeping across the colonial world and Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, as the basis for complex human emotions like anger, hate and stress, was getting debunked by every scientist worth their PhD.
Koestler’s argument was more functional in that, he believed atoms are whole in themselves, but also a part of a molecule, in the same systemic manner that makes human beings part of large social systems. The ‘ghost in the machine’, he posits is a result of how we humans function within the collective, sharing immaterial socio-historical and biological commonalities that in turn affect our behavioural responses. Or to put it quite simply, he believed sometimes the logical thinking mind can be overridden by the primitive part of our collective human brains that’s sort of always automatically taking in information from the world around us, and therefore is always on auto-pilot.
This week’s alt. mondays is themed #GhostRadio, in line with the thinking that our control over our behaviour is sometimes a ghost in the machine situation. Only in this case, if the machine were a radio, the ghost will be ARTISH, providing you with a range of carefully selected numbers for automated listening.
Behaviourism aside, the 20-tracks on Alt Mondays 025 are dedicated to celebrating the life of the hero and inspiring actor, Chadwick as well as Mac Miller, who died on this date, 2 years ago. The playlist opens with “King’s Dead” from The Black Panther Soundtrack album then goes on to feature other tracks from that tape and few songs by Mac. We’ve also included a few of the latest releases from artists around the continent and some throwback bangers like ILoveMakonnen and Drake’s “Tuesday”.
Stream alt. Mondays 025 below: